Where did my Swedish Ancestor Go?

Hello everyone! How’s it going this week? I’ve had a great week of learning more about other people’s ancestor’s and their lives. It’s interesting to me to see how other people chose to live their life. It shows in the records that were left. I talked about Swedish household examination records last week and now I want to talk with you about another record that goes hand in hand with the other. They are called Swedish moving in and out records. Their Swedish names are “inflyttningslangd” for moving in and “utflyttninglangd” for moving out of the Swedish parishes.

What are Swedish moving in and out records?

So if you’re ancestor moved around a lot or a little in Sweden, they would get a certificate from their parish priest. This paper would record the old parish where your ancestor was moving from. Then your ancestor would present that paper to the new parish priest and they would record the new parish on that paper. Sometimes the old parish priest would record both parishes because your ancestor would probably know where they were moving. So they could tell their old parish priest all of the information. The new parish priest would often keep the certificate for future use. Then if your ancestor wanted to move again, they would go to the parish priest to get their certificate updated and take it to the next parish.

Sweden is again the only country that kept up this tradition. The other Scandinavian countries tried this record keeping; however, it didn’t stick like it did with Sweden. So this is what your Swedish ancestor did if they wanted to move from parish to parish. Even if they moved to another country, it would be noted on their moving in and out records. Again, this is why I love Swedish records so much! They tried really hard to keep up their records and to be as detailed as possible. If you’re looking for your Swedish ancestor, then you need to look in both the household examination records and moving in and out records. You’ll get a more complete picture of your ancestor if you do it this way.

Moving In Record Details

So what will you find in a Swedish moving in record? These are the records recorded when an ancestor moves into a new parish.

• The moving date including month, day , and year
• The ancestor’s full name and occupation
• Their birth date and gender
• The old parish or farm where they moved from
• The new farm where they’re going to
• The page number where the ancestor is located in the household examination records
• Any other notes that the priest wanted to add

Moving Out Record Details

So then what does the moving out records show? Almost the same information.

• The date the ancestor moved out including day, month, and year
• The ancestor’s full name and occupation
• Their birth information and gender
• The farm or parish that they’re leaving
• The farm or parish that they’re going to
• The household examination page number that the ancestor is located
• Any notes the priest wanted to leave

The point is that the dates on these two records will help you follow your ancestor through their moves. The rest of the information may be similar, but that just helps you follow the correct ancestor. In the coming weeks, I may do another case study to walk you through how you use household examinations and moving in and out records to follow an ancestor. So if you need to refresh your memory on household records then go here and here. In addition, if you want to learn more about moving in and out records, then go here and here. As always, I’m here to help.

Good luck and happy hunting!

Tiffany